Author: Jackie

Love Means Nothing in Tennis, but Everything at NP

As far as weekdays go, Wednesday, you’re alright. I used to think of Wednesday only as “hump” day, or the middle of the week. Now, Wednesday’s mean one thing: November Project. It’s safe to say Wednesdays have been taken to another level.

While the one-and-only Jackie Knoll brings the free fitness game to the EU, we decided to mix things up by leveraging the talent already in our awesome tribe. Yes, that’s right, today was week one of #guestcoleading and it started off with a bang with Coach Steven at the helm. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been known to cringe at Coach Steven’s workouts. They aren’t to be taken lightly. read more

¡Hola amigos!

I miss you guys like crazy. I 100% freaked out on Scotty and basically begged him to catch up with me on a bi-weekly basis because I was missing you all. Luckily, Scott agreed (because he is one of the nicest people ever). So, just know that I am keeping tabs on all of you.

In addition to the bi-weekly chats with Scott, I am also going to be starting a nomad branch of the NP Phoenix tribe next week. I had the opportunity to go to a vision board workshop the other day at the coworking space I work out of here in Valencia. Almost all of the people in the group talked about how they were lacking the motivation to work out and before I knew it, I had volunteered myself to start up a work out group. It will be like having a piece of home with me and make me feel a bit more like myself! Whenever possible (location permitting) I am going to try and keep the Wednesday workouts as close as I can to what you will be doing at home. Maybe I’ll even post a few teasers in the Cactus Lounge.

Aside from that, Scotty and I just wanted to bring to your attention that this Saturday is Global Climbing Day. It is the perfect excuse to get out there and try climbing if you have never tried it or to dust off your old gear and get back after it. The movement was created by The North Face with the intention of encouraging more people to climb and to change the conversation regarding walls. TNF believes that walls aren’t meant to divide, but rather they are meant to bring people together, build trust, and push us further. As their campaign says – WALLS ARE MEANT FOR CLIMBING 🙂

On Global Climbing Day (8-18-18), TNF is giving people the chance to climb for free at participating gyms around the world. Unfortunately, there are no participating gyms in Arizona or in Spain; however, we wanted you to be aware of it in the event you wanted to support the initiative and get out and climb this weekend anyway. So grab your friends and get out there!

Last, but not least super pumped to see what “Coach Steven” comes up with for his workout. I am jealous I can’t be there. Please make sure you make it if you an to support your tribemates!

Love you. Miss You.

Jackie

 

 

While all PR days are pretty spectacular, yesterday’s was SUPER 😉

While trying not to literally run over the many photographers that had come out to Papago to take pictures of the “super blue blood moon” total eclipse, I was reminded how lucky we are to have such a cool workout location.

I’m going to assume that these photographers thought to themselves: “Where can I go in the valley that would get me super cool shots of this blood moon?” And then found themselves at Papago Park. I’m also going to assume they had NO IDEA that they would be watching the total eclipse to a sweet early 2000s playlist with 60 total strangers.

Unlike those photographers, I was happy to get to share the moment with you guys. It was a nice moment when everyone running in from the parking lot stopped to take in the moment together. Even nicer still that we got to share the moment with more parking lot runners as the photographers stole the closer parking spots.

Word is that this won’t happen again until 2037 so if you missed it – You missed it. So maybe you should just always show up to NP so you don’t miss out again.

 

WISCONSIN NOTES:

• Annie and Andrew (by mere seconds over Jason) took home the Bolo Ties with the most reps (in the fastest time).
• Monday’s hill workout will be at MOFO. 36^th Street and Lincoln.

 

 

Peace, love and cacti,

Jackie

 

 

There is nothing quite like Arizona Rain.

I don’t know what it is exactly, but I am sure it has something to do with how infrequently we get it. It’s the only place that I know about that has a official rain vibe and scent which I just love about us.

In Arizona it is perfectly acceptable to cancel ALL of your plans when it rains and just cuddle up at home. Rainy day is basically synonymous with lazy day and nobody expects anyone to pull their butts off the couch and get out there because these days come so infrequently and should be spent accordingly.

Which is why it was so impressive that so many of you showed up to the workout this morning! You could have taken the free pass handed to all Arizonans on rainy days, but you didn’t. Well, okay… a lot of you did; however, to those of you who did show up this morning when we wouldn’t have questioned your otherwise – Kudos to you!

So to reward you, we let you suck in that sweet smell of Arizona rain when you were trying to catch your breath as you raced one another to get today’s workout done. (Go team Wyatt!) Then we topped it off with the classic Arizona rainy day activity: Heads Up, Seven Up!

Growing up in Arizona we weren’t allowed to go outside during recess if it is raining (or at least in my day). I am not sure if it was because they didn’t want us to track water into the classrooms, if Arizona kids didn’t have proper rain jackets , or if they legit thought the world was ending. You can ask just about anyone who grew up here what they did at school on raining days and they will all share stories about Heads Up, Seven Up.

So thank you for appeasing my inner child and throwing it back for Heads Up, Seven Up. Even if it didn’t really even rain at all during our workout today.

WISCONSIN NOTES:

Monday is at 56th Street and Camelback. 6AM. Two mild warm up leaves at 5:30 from the Church on 56th Street just south of Camelback.

Warm up miles for Wednesday leave the West Buttes Parking Lot at 5:25 AM starting next week.

Good luck to everyone who is running this weekend at Rock and Roll. Join us to cheer everyone on if you aren’t running. Check out Cactus Lounge (our social page on Facebook)  or message us for details.

Peace, love and cacti,

Jackie

=&0=&

=&1=&

=&2=&

=&3=&

=&4=&

=&5=&

 

I’m not going to lie to you all. I really struggled to get to NP this morning.

It’s been a really rough couple of days.  Being the type of person who wears her emotions on her sleeves, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to fake a smile and be there for all of you.

Of course, what I found was that I didn’t have to fake a smile at all and that it was you all that were there for me today.

All it took was seeing your familiar faces as I walked up the hill to the workout and I felt immediately at ease. Before I even realized it I was deep into hugs and conversation and the troubles of the outside world had fallen away. Even if only for a that NP moment, everything seemed right.

It reminded me on a personal level what makes NP so special and I’ll let you in on a secret – it isn’t the workouts.

So, thank you all for making me feel so loved this morning and reminding me that there is always something to smile about.  I hope that if there is ever a day that you need the tribe, that you decided to show up and lean into the wonderful. I promise we’ll be there for you.

 

=&6=&

Jade FINALLY brought the crushing it award back 🙂 and awarded the crushing it award to Dave who absolutely crushed the Scottsdale Half this past weekend. Well deserved Dave!

read more

Positivity Award

For those of you who haven’t gotten a chance to know Rick personally, you should.

Rick is someone you want on your team. He is one of those people who focuses his energy not on his own accomplishments but on the accomplishments of those around him. Celebrating you is a celebration within itself for Rick and we feel that this embodies what it means to be a part of a tribe.

You’ll never really hear Rick talking about how fast he is (and his is fast) or how far he just ran (and the dude runs far) because he is too busy congratulating you about how fast you are or how far you ran.

Rick is at his finest when he has the opportunity to support or motivate others like he did two weekends ago in San Francisco where he ran side by side with Ahmad as Ahmad finished his first 50k on a brutally hilly course. Ahmad joked about how Rick literally drug him to the finish line and I bet it was damn near the truth.

 

When Rick tells someone he is going to run with them he isn’t going anywhere until the two of you cross that line. I know this because I have been very fortunate to have Rick as a running partner for quite some time now. We have run thousands of miles together over the years and I can’t count the number of times Rick has gotten me through a run or a race.

When I hit a rock wrong going down the North Rim while running rim-to-rim-to-rim I wasn’t certain I would be able to run the last 20 miles. While the rest of the group ran on Rick stayed behind and walked with me until I found my stride again both mentally and physically until we caught back up to the group and finished all together. There is no way I would’ve gotten through that little rough patch without him and he sacrificed his run to make sure I finished mine. He’s just the type of friend who doesn’t leave other friends behind.

 

Although helping friends reach their goals and supporting the tribe is not out of character for Rick, it reminded us what it truly means to be a member of a tribe and that this type of selflessness was something we should all try and emulate. Trevor and I couldn’t have been more excited to give Ricky Rickster the positive award.

Thanks Rick for being you!

 

 

 

Wisconsin Notes

Monday is at MOFO – 36th Street and Lincoln. Park in the church parking lot on the NW corner and walk North up 36th Street (up the mountain) to meet at the corner of 36th Street and Palm Canyon Drive at 6 am.

Congrats to Jade for her big day taking home the Bolo Tie for the Ladies and the Crushing it Award! Congrats to Andrew for the Male Bolo Tie.

Last couple days to go out and eat mexican Food!

 

Peace, love and cacti,

Jackie

WISCONSIN NOTES:

Big thanks to the Big Canadian Guy, Steve, for going improv on the bounce with absolutely no warning. Great start to the workout.

NEXT WEEK: We Will NOT be at Papago. We are having a ONE TIME special event running at ASU Sun Devil Stadium. Meet on the Southside of the Stadium. More details to follow. Bring EVERYONE.

FOOTBALL GAME. We are going to tailgate and sit together at the ASU vs. UofA football game. Put in the code NPLOVESAZ for a discount on tickets. Check out our Facebook page or message us for further details.

MONDAY – 36th Street and Lincoln

read more

I want to start by apologizing for not getting you the included hikes for this months #NPlovesAZ challenge. Totally my fault. And to make up for it, we are going to include many more hikes for you to choose from.

We have been excited for the weather to cool off so we could finally do an outdoor challenge and encourage everyone to take advantage of our “fall” weather. There are so many options for great hikes in Arizona that it was hard to generate a list, but hope you can find yourself on one of these trails this month.

For those of you who were not at the hill workout this morning, Wayne suggested we use the summits that are including in the Annual Seven Summits Challenge which was a great suggestion considering that this year’s challenge is November 18th 2017 and our challenge could be the perfect training opportunity for those who might be interested in tackling the Seven Summits Challenge next month.

We did add in a few additional summits as most of the summits on the Seven Summits Challenge are in the same area of town and we wanted to make sure there we options all over town.

 

So this month’s Summit Challenge includes:

Piestewa Peak

Lookout Mountain

Apache Wash Trailhead – Apache Vista

Holbert Trail at South Mountain.

Camelback Mountain

Flat Irons – Superstitions Mountains

Tom’s Thumb

 

Extra Credit

Humphrey’s Peak – Flagstaff

Mount Lemmon – Tucson

 

If you have already completed one of these hikes this month please just let us know of go back and include the challenge hostage of #NPlovesAZ for credit.

 

Enjoy the weather.

Bring lots of water and stay safe!

See you Wednesday.

 

Peace, love and cacti,

Jackie

 

Chuck.

 

Not only is this guy the people’s champion and the best high five greeter, but he is also a mind reader. Somehow he knew that I was going to put him on blast for missing so many NP workouts the last few months. I am sure that he has a perfectly good excuse, but that isn’t the point. Luckily, the guy showed up today which means someone must have tipped him off. Chuck isn’t the only mind reader in the group. Jeff Beach also randomly showed up today before he too was scheduled to get called out. Like Chuck, Jeff does a lot for the tribe. Jeff and his mom (where is mom?) often sweep the stairs after the monsoons so we can have a safe space to workout. So it has been super noticeable that he hasn’t been there to at least harass Trevor and I to sweep those puppies up so you guys don’t get hurt.

So instead of calling out Chuck and Jeff, I am going to call out:

 

       

 

Jamie and Francis.

Jamie had been coming consistently for years which was awesome. Even more awesome was that he brought his wife, Francis, to several of the workouts and everything seemed great. Then right after they roll in and take two of the best yearbook photos of the year, they literally just ghosted us. No warning at all. Just Poof. What the?

 

 

Katie Ellis

I didn’t see it at the time, but apparently this chick was just using us to rehab back from injury and to get her weekly dose of high-fives. It is pretty suspicious that as soon as she was healthy again, she vanished. She wants us to think that she can’t come anymore because she is in PT school, but last week she was spotted swimming at El Dorado on a Wednesday AFTER NP. So as expected. Total Farse.

So take note. Don’t think that you can come and be the greeters, stair sweepers, models, and injury reserve captains and miss a few workouts unnoticed.

 

Notes:

Lets sweep the stairs! I’m thinking next week we might have to incorporate that into the workout.

Southwest Collision Course: Joshua Tree Style. Sign up. September 15th -17th. Be There.

Monday Andrew is taking over hills while Jackie is gone the next couple of weeks. You won’t want to miss it.

 

 

Peace, love and cacti,

Jackie